Kim Man-jung (1637–1692)

I had checked this out at the library when I did my sweep through for #koreanmarch, grabbing every book from a Korean author that I could find. To be honest, I didn't really expect to get to this one, as I had never heard of it and its status as a seventeenth-century classic made me suspect it might be dry and less interesting than some of the modern books I had also checked out. But then I read a post by a friend on Instagram and immediately moved this book to the top of my stack.

Dry is the last thing this book is. A young Buddhist monk strays from his path and as a consequence is sent to Hell to be reincarnated, as are the eight fairies who caused his temptation. Reborn, they are all incredibly beautiful and epically talented (literally epically, their various talents are constantly being compared to legends of poetry, music, beauty, and wisdom in Chinese history, and generally coming out favorably). The whole thing doesn't seem like much of a punishment or lesson until you realize that it is all a commentary on the nature of reality, the three paths of Confucianism, Buddhism, and Taoism, and Korean politics of the day.

Without these perspectives (which the introduction does a lot of work to establish), it can simply be read as a charming fairy tale, a vision of an idealized epoch of wise leaders and gracious women.

An important text in Korean culture, it can also shine some light on modern Korean literature and other arts. It connected some dots for me on things that had mystified me in K-dramas. I am glad that this was recommended to me, and that I read it!… (mehr)